The incessant bit of the monitor and the hoarse throat was what wake her up, in the last hours, Alison has been in and out, hearing things, seeing things, impossible ones, and it was annoying. It was a very blurry night last night, hard to explain and impossible to understand, so she didn't try, the headache was already unbearable, she didn't want more in her plate that the things she can cope with.
A sudden noise, a distant noise, triggered a memory.
"Ali" The throbbing head and the pain in her body was making her light, dizzy, confused. So she wasn't sure, because the voice it sounds like Spencer.
"Thank God you're awake!" A squeak sends a wave of pain to her throbbing head, she recognizes Hanna immediately.
"Not so loud" was the only thing that her hoarse and stertorous voice could say at the time.
"Yes, Han, not so loud" Aria was carrying a gym bag, her gym bag. "It's good to see you awake Ali, we were worried" The petite girl take a seat in the visitor's chair by her bedside.
"How long?" The blonde manage to say, it was borderline painful every time she talks.
"Almost an entire day, it's five o'clock already," Hanna informs sitting in the furthest end of the hospital bed. "Spencer and Jason are speaking with the doctors, they need all the evidence they got to…" Aria gave the blonde a stern look, almost threatening.
"Elliott" The name was painful to pronounce, but it was a different kind of pain, it was almost physical, but she couldn't remember why.
"Don't worry" Jason DiLaurentis was standing in the door, with the tuxedo that he has used the prior day. "Someone already takes care of him"
In the middle of the hallway, the three girls gasp when they get to see Alison surrounded by her own blood, Emily was frozen inside, Hanna and Spencer react immediately running towards the girl, they didn't count with Elliott awaking at that moment.
"What the hell are you two doing in here" He barked with a foot ahead, ready to attack.
"Don't you dare to move" The barrel in his head gave him the way. "Put your hands up, slowly" The voice was firm and he knew immediately, this person wasn't going to hesitate to shoot. "Now, turn around"
The smirk on his face when he was looking directly at her make her blood unfrozen. because, at that moment, it was boiling.
"I knew you got something to do with her turning me down, she's a sick dike, just like you" The grip in the handler tighten, her finger was itchy.
"Move, to the door, now" They walk slowly until they reach the wooden door, Emily, opened widely and make him walk to the porch, in the edge of the stairs.
"You know she begs me to stop, she was begging" He started to laugh aloud. "Alison DiLaurentis, begging, whining, like a bitch"
"On your knees" The former swimmer push the barrel in his back head making herself pretty clear, Elliott giggle and then he laughs, again, she never felt so full of bloodlust in her life.
"You can shoot me, beat me or whatever you want, but you're never going to change the fact that I will always be going to haunt her in dreams, I'm going to be the darkest shadow in her life"
The next thing he knew was about the heavy combat boot falling flat against his back, the man fall rolling down the stairs, the blow in his ribs and the fall left him lying in the dirt, under the rain, and over the mud; Emily makes her way downstairs, and merciless, she started a hammered attack of Punches and kicks, it was just matter of time for him to figure it out, the lack of possibilities to end up alive under the severe and red rage of Emily Fields.
The ER room of Rosewood Memorial wasn't entirely unfamiliar to Emily, she has spent a fair amount of time in there, so some of the views weren't unknown, except the suit up detective and the long forgotten sight of Toby Cavanaugh in the blue attire.
"Look, Detective Furey, usually, I'm not a violent person, but this thing is growing up on me." The nurse who patches up her knuckles was long gone and there wasn't anyone who could prevent Emily from choking the man.
"I'm sorry if this is annoying for you miss Fields, but this is a procedure, I can't just skip it" The man had a sharp gaze and inquisitive eyes, it was handsome and in some way, remembered physically at her father.
"You should be following your annoying procedure with Elliott Rollings, his the real villain of the story, not me"
Toby, playing as a spectator, was secretly amused at the interaction, he couldn't pinpoint who was most annoyed if his partner or his longtime friend.
"I would, if I could, but sadly, your nonviolent personality left him in ICU, so…"
"What can I said, I'm a goner for kicking idiots"
Before the man could say anything else, the curtains open revealing a pretty pissed of Spencer Hastings, who look at Toby first, after seven years, and if the situation affected her, the girl didn't show.
"Emily, come, you don't have to answer any of this crap" The detective look insulted by the outburst of the youngest child of Peter Hastings.
"Excuse me, miss, who the hell are you and why are coming in here like you owned the place?" Spencer looked at the man with irritation and annoyance.
"Well detective, I'm Spencer Hastings, Miss's Fields lawyer and you, are holding my represented under any charge instead of doing your real job, stopping the real assaulter in this story, Elliott Rollins, who attack Alison DiLaurentis who happens to be in this hospital too, so, maybe you should pass for her room, is 271, now, if you excuse me" She looks for the last time at Toby and then she takes Emily's hand and dragged her out of the cubicle.
The detective looked at the agent rather confused than anything else, Toby, in the other hand, was still processing the situation, has been almost seven years since the last time he saw Spencer Hastings for the last time and was like having seventeen all over again; the butterflies and the awkwardness of the first love. At the other end of the same room, Spencer Hastings was holding herself on a column, she didn't know what was more overwhelming, Emily's presence, Toby's knowledge of her being in town or the Ali thing, she was looking directly at Emily who was leaning on the wall, with her eyes tightly closed and a shaking breathing.
"What are you doing in Rosewood Em?"
"Gee Spence, what a greeting" Emily masked the hurt on her voice because of course, the Hastings girl will be wary at her sudden presence in town.
"I'm not joking, Emily, seriously, what are you doing in Rosewood?"
"Took some time from work, I got a couple of months free so, here I am"
"That's the only reason or… you had an ulterior motive?"
Spencer thought that it will be her the one who would split their group apart, that she will destroy everything they had built in all those years, but surprisingly, it had been easier to stay in touch with her friends, with Hanna in New York, Aria in Boston and Ali in Rosewood, she working in DC, the communication has been fairly good, all of them had obviously had an all-new life; Hanna was a very respect designer, being young and all had the girl already in Milan and Paris, sharing her talent, Aria was a Bestseller writer, she already published her second book part of an extensive saga; Alison, well, the youngest DiLaurentis has given her life a cartwheel turn, she was an English teacher in Rosewood High, but she also was the owner of the 51% of the Carissimi Group and a shareholder in DiLaurentis Holding Group, and then was Emily. Seven years ago Emily Fields left Rosewood and doesn't look back, the UCLA offered her an opportunity, and she takes it, and until a day ago, she hasn't heard about the former girl-next-door of Rosewood.
"No Spencer, I don't have any ulterior motive, I just wanted to visit my Mom, it's that a crime your honor?"
"Don't throw that crap on me, Emily, you have been MIA seven years, and you just show up when, casually, the only left of us in Rosewood was going to travel out of town!" Emily sights and Spencer let out a shaky breath, the tanned girl look up to the brunette.
"If you're asking me if I'm trying to avoid any contact with you and the girl, well, you nailed Nancy Drew" Spencer looked taken aback at the confession, Emily, in the other hand, was scared.
"Why?" For the first time, Spencer didn't have any other questions than that one.
"Because we were finally free, and all of you seemed happy, and I was afraid that maybe, if we stayed together, A would come back and ruined everything, because every time we're together like happy, a new problem, a new treat shows up and you weren't separating from each other any time soon so, I think, 'maybe if I step back, maybe I could protect them', and it works, so far, it works"
Spencer took a step ahead of and hug her friend, she embraces the girl tightly, afraid of letting her go, because she already had missed her seven years, a she wasn't disposed to let her go, not again.
"That's not how it works, Em, we are together in this, and being apart just bring us sadness, us, standing together it made us stronger" The swimmer didn't look up, her gaze was stuck in her boots, lonely tears falling down her cheeks, "If you weren't in there last night, if you did not shows, he would have killed Ali, you save her"
The embrace turned out to be desperate, trying to hold to the reality, Emily has been dreaming of being back with her friends, with her sisters; in the last few years, the memory of her mother, of her friends, of a long-gone father was the only thing that has kept her alive, fighting, hoping.
The Colonel Wayne Fields has died as a hero, in the line of duty, and it wasn't until that, that Emily came back to Rosewood, It has been in her last year of College, majoring in Biology, she has already a scholarship from Stanford to make her Master, but she couldn't, her life went downhill since the news. She almost screws her finals but she made it, she survive, again, and after everything she had gone through the tanned swimmer finally get it, she was a survivor, she was designed to survive, and she just did that. She joins the army.
"Let's go, Jason send me a message, Ali thinks she was hallucinating when she hears your voice" And suddenly Emily was frozen inside, she tried to move but she was stuck in her boots. "You know it's gonna be okay, right?" Spencer lay a reassuring hand in her shoulder, Emily smirk coyly.
"It isn't." She says matter of fact " Let's face the music"
They walk down the hallway to the room, Spencer opens the door slowly, Hanna and Aria where around Alison while Jason was sitting in a chair, staring at his phone unaware of the world. The young Hastings sent a sweet smile at Alison, just to prepare the girl for the sight. The blonde girl has been wondering since she opens her eyes if Emily's voice and presence in the crime scene just caused by her delusional state. The door open even more letting a shy Em gave the girls a timid smile, but the second she put a foot in the room, Hanna, stand up from her position at Ali's feet and walk through the room, directly at the former swimmer.
"Hi Han, how are you doing?" And she gets an answer...in the form of a searing slap across her face.
Emily grabbed her cheek, and for some reason, the action was expected and was amusing in a twisted way, she looks back at the room, where the rest of the persons in it were surprised, Jason, who happened to be engrossed in his cell phone, was already looking at the scene with shock, Ali, in the bed, was looking at Hanna and Emily with the same expression than her brother, Spencer and Aria were shaking their heads at Hanna, not in disappointment, but in a way that herself was used to looking at the blonde hand grenade.
"Well, I totally deserved that" In an interesting development of the afternoon, Hanna wrap herself around Emily's neck, the Army Captain accept the embrace with gusto, has been a long time since she had physical contact with someone beyond the hand in hand combat endure in her line of work.
It wasn't for a second after than Aria join the hug, Emily holds the two of them like a lifeline, but her eyes were focused on Alison, her sweet Alison, lying on the bed, bruised, in pain, it was more than she could handle. The shorter girls release from the hug with red and puffy eyes, the makeup stains in Emily´s shirt weren´t that visible thanks to the black color of it, but the wet spots, well, those were visible.
"You weren't a dream"